Holidays Remembered
by clarissafrench
Summary: The Doctor's lost in memories of holidays past.


A/N: Thanks to Marcasite for the beta read.

* * *

"Come on now, why can't we?"

Donna blew a few stray hairs away from her face with a frustrated sigh as they walked into the control room.

"I'm telling you, Donna, I don't need to celebrate Christmas. I've had my fill of seeing Santas for awhile, haven't you?" said the Doctor.

"That was one time. I've seen loads of things more frightening than that now," she said.

The Doctor looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, you know what I mean," Donna said. "I haven't got a sudden fear of Santas just from that one time. You can't be afraid of them-are you? I mean, I don't have a fear of snow just because we nearly got killed on a snowy planet."

"Of course not. It's just..." the Doctor trailed off.

"You've probably managed to get shot at everywhere you've gone, so you can't get scared that easily."

"Hmm?"

A moment later, his eyes brightened. "Donna, you hate Christmas! Why is it your favorite day now?"

"Well-and don't take this the wrong way-it's a lot more fun when you've got someone to clown around with. Besides, it's a kids' holiday, and I can't think of a bigger kid than you," she said. "Surely you know some interesting place to go- ooh, how about a Victorian Christmas? All those fancy dresses and spun sugar sweets."

"Done it," the Doctor said. He furrowed his brow as he thought of it.

"Don't tell me. Alien invasion?" Donna asked, with a twinkle in her eye.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. Ghosts, Charles Dickens, the lot."

Donna leaned up against one of the coral pillars.

"And Rose?"

"Her too. And zombies. Well, sort of. But she was glad to be there with me, even though she thought she was going to die."

"I know the feeling," Donna mumbled.

"What's that?"

"Oh, nothing, Doctor," Donna said. "I didn't mean to get you sad- I just wanted to be, you know, a bit festive. Have some fun."

The Doctor nodded, still lost in thought.

"Well, what about a regular Christmas? Just go home to London- no spiders. It'll be fun."

The Doctor smiled sheepishly.

"Don't tell me. I've done it again," Donna said. "Alien invasion?"

He nodded.

"Don't need to know much more about you to keep getting these right," Donna said, nudging him on the shoulder.

"That was my second Christmas with Rose. Everything was so strange that time. Wasn't quite myself that day."

"Well go on, then. Tell me about it."

"No, that's all right, you wanted a Christmas celebration," he said, leaping over to a console. "We could see the biggest Christmas pudding in the universe. On Sokeri, they have this giant bakery- ribbons of sugar as wide as your hand-"

"Doctor, come on. You always do this. What was so bad about that day?"

The manic expression slipped from his face as quickly as it had appeared.

"It wasn't bad," he said softly. "Well, I _did_ lose my hand, but I grew another one, so that was all right."

He paused.

"She tried to save the world for me. A lot of people would've just given me up, but not Rose," he said. "And then we went back and had Christmas with her mum. My first Christmas dinner, with a turkey- surprise, that one. Thought it would be nut loaf. Crackers with those paper hats as well."

"That sounds so wonderful. Why don't you want to remember that?"

"I never forget a friend, and certainly not Rose, but sometimes, it's easier not to think about it," he said. "Just for a bit."

"Tell you what," said Donna, patting the console. "Let's do something fun. It won't replace the Christmases you had with Rose- your head's got plenty of space for that."

He looked up and caught her smile.

"You know, there's one thing I couldn't really do with Rose that I really must do."

"What's that?"

"It's a promise I made her..."

* * *

"Shhh. You'll wake up the whole building," whispered Donna.

"It's not exactly easy bringing this thing up the stairs, Donna," he said.

"Why didn't you land the Tardis up here?"

"Can't take the chance that she'd see it."

"Oh, but breaking into her flat's all right, is it?"

The Doctor stopped walking and looked at her. "I'm just doing what I said I would. Doesn't mean I have to risk that fabric of time to save a few minutes' walk up the stairs."

He stopped at the next floor.

"Our stop," he said with a grin.

"Hurry up, then. It's nearly six. She's bound to be up any minute."

He unlocked the flat door with the sonic screwdriver and tiptoed in.

"You're sure this is the right color?" Donna asked. "She might prefer pink."

"Red is what I said, and red is what it is," he said with a grin.

He put his large parcel down next to the tree.

"Time to go."

He'd been almost giddy as they snuck up to the flat, but Donna could see the mood fading.

"Come on," she said. "I saw the perfect hiding place."

They slipped out of the flat and hid in a small alcove in the outside walkway, near the flat's front window.

A few minutes later they heard a girl yelling.

"Mum! You said we couldn't afford it. How did you do it?"

"Shhh. You'll wake up the whole neighborhood, Rose. What is it?"

"A bicycle, a red bicycle," the girl laughed.

Outside, Donna looked at the Doctor. Maybe, just maybe, he'd found something to like about Santas, she thought.


End file.
